TREES

"I think that I will never see
A poem lovely as a tree
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts it's leafy arms to pray...


     When we moved to the house in Washington in August of 1969, there were two apple trees on the back of the property and another apple tree about half way up the east side of the three plus acres we owned.  And in the front yard was this immense soft maple that was our only shade for many years - the only picture of which I could find is taken in winter.  We played croquet under that tree, the girls played Barbies, We sat in the cool shade of a summer evening until the flies got too bad because the neighbor across the road kept hogs.   
  One day the next spring, I bought two soft maples from Kelly Seeds for $25.00, and Vern went ballistic because I had spent so much money.  He told me to go down to the old house on Martin Street and pick up some of the maple seeds in the street and I did - I did everything he said!!! - and he planted a whole row of maples in the garden.  As they grew, he transplanted them to other places in the yard.
   A friend, Merle Dickey, was an engineer for the state of Illinois and was working on making Peoria Street in Washington
four lanes and stopped by to visit one day.  There were a lot of rocks on the property, that we had stacked near one of the barns.  He asked if he could have the rocks as he was building a fireplace in his house outside Metamora.  He had some pine trees he would trade.  So we planted pine trees.
   My Mother bought two blue spruce at a nursery in Wenona and with great ceremony brought them out, gathered the daughters around and as they were planted, she pointed to one and noted that it represented her and the other Dad.  And that long after they were gone, the spruces would represent them. 
   Vern's dad gave us some walnut trees from Missouri and one of them survived.  Tony was still planting walnut trees in his 80s.  It's a great person, who plants slow growing seedlings knowing he will never see them bear fruit.  That its all for the future.
   My sister, Judy, worked for the USDA and every year, farmers could buy white pine seedlings.  One year the farmer who had ordered them, didn't pick them up, so Judy bought 100 little white pines for under ten dollars and brought them up to us.  I still remember the day we planted those little suckers. That was an awful long time to be on my knees!!
    We put in fences for the ponies and once they were gone, elms and soft maples grew down in that area and slowly became woods.

The rest of the story:  One day I was reading in Yankee magazine about a man who built a path through his woods.  Vern read it, and decided to do the same thing.  He built a bridge over the creek, put in steps, benches and a fire pit.  We planted hostas, violets and day lilies in various places.  It was the loveliest place, always cool and we sat down there often contemplating life.
     The 100 white pines from the USDA, except for a few used as Christmas trees are still there and became our buffer when they built the Walmart Super Store in Washington.  We did not have to look out the back and see all that.
     The walnut tree grew and produced walnuts that were absconded  by the squirrels.
     A few months after the planting of the blue spruces.  Leah, who took things quite literally, came into the kitchen crying and said:  "I was mowing and mowed down Grampa." "Mom" is still growing along the field road and is a magnificent specimen of what a blue spruce should be.
    Merle and Greta Dickey's fireplace is magnificent.  The room it's in has a two story ceiling.  Quite beautiful.  And the groves of pines still flourish in the yard.
    One of my two "expensive" maples was right behind the screened in porch on the back of the house.  We watched birds hatch their young from that tree.  Our dog Duffy, went berserk when he spied squirrels up there.  And the onery squirrels bedeviled him because they knew they were safe.  And it was a great tree climbing tree for grandchildren.  My mind still sees them sitting in the branches.
     The apple tree close to the house, one evening we were having dinner and there was a big window by the table and we watched it come out of the ground and fall over.  Pretty memorable.  One of the apple trees in the back was still there when I moved away.
     But what precipitated this blog was today I was in Washington and drove by the old house and our wonderful old tree in the front is gone.  I don't know when it was taken down but the family who lives there put a wood burning stove in the living room and I am sure they used our stalwart friend to give them comfort in a new way.  The cycle of life.